The Cheesecake Shop
Cost of living pressures, supply chain upheaval, rapid digital transformation, and a love affair with delivery services. Quick service restaurants (QSR) in the franchise sector experience tremendous and undeniable change year to year.
It begs the question: what can we expect to see across the franchise sector in 2025?
The Cheesecake Shop Chief Executive Officer, Scott Bush, shares his top five predictions for the year ahead.
#1 Innovation
It’s no secret that new offerings create excitement for existing and potential customers in every industry across the globe. We predict that franchise companies will continue to invest heavily in innovation across products, in-store experiences, digital enhancements and more.
In the QSR sector, we expect a huge lift in digital enhancements and innovation with loyalty programs and rewards for customers, particularly as we see increasing consumer interest in convenient ‘deals’, accessible at the click of a button. Innovation in these areas will ensure brands maintain a growth mindset in 2025 and beyond.
The Cheesecake Shop prioritises product innovation, constantly striving to exceed customer expectations and desires. Last year alone, we launched our ‘Daily Treats’ range that saw exciting new products hit our shelves, including our loaded cookies, red velvet and passionfruit cheesecake-lamingtons. These innovative products serve as a testament to our commitment to innovation and willingness to trial new ideas to meet customer demands, and to deliver fresh, exciting options that bring something new to the table.
Our customers told us they wanted bite-sized, single-serve items, and we delivered.
#2 Leveraging Market Trends
It’s imperative for businesses to understand that customers view value as more than financial, and factor in time, convenience and innovation in their purchasing decisions. In today’s climate, operators must work harder than ever to meet customer expectations in a ‘viral-obsessed’ society, where leveraging a trend can significantly impact revenue.
We continue to see large corporations reap the rewards when jumping on market trends, backed by consumer research, and we predict more franchise companies will capitalise on these opportunities in 2025.
The Cheesecake Shop recently harnessed the popular loaded cookie trend, welcoming loaded cookies to our brand-new ‘Daily Treats’ range, which itself was introduced to align with the
industry’s growing demand for snackable products. In November, we introduced our Cookie of the
Month initiative, bringing customers the excitement of a new, loaded cookie flavour to indulge in – available for only one month. We unveil a fresh, irresistible flavour each month, keeping our customers on their toes and eagerly anticipating what’s next, while bringing something new to our stores. We saw, and continue to see, great success with these treats – we anticipate this will continue well into 2025.
#3 Investing In The Reliable
Customers love participating in the latest craze, but we’ve seen how businesses born from a societal fad or timely trend struggle to maintain momentum and business growth. Investing in an established brand (like The Cheesecake Shop) allows entrepreneurs to join a known entity with an existing customer base, recognised brand, established products and support network to remove layers of uncertainty from their investment decision.
Alongside this, investing in a recognisable company with products that are tried-and-tested, perform well in periods of economic downturn, and attract generations of loyal customers can offer an early advantage.
As we continue to navigate the cost-of-living crisis, we anticipate this will be a crucial consideration for franchisee investors.
Delivering classic, well-made and dependable desserts allows us to provide a sustainable business model to new Franchise Partners. With this in mind, we also predict prospective partners will seek out franchise models with a comprehensive and seamless onboarding process. At The Cheesecake Shop, we reworked our induction program to ensure it was comprehensive and covered both the fundamentals and finer details, while helping our Franchise Partners to feel supported by others in the same stage of their entrepreneurial journey.
#4 Strength In Numbers
Australia continues to see a population increase of 2.3 per cent annually, fuelled mainly by overseas migration. With this major uplift, we predict that franchise companies will push extensive recruitment drives in 2025, investing in new talent to open new franchise stores in regional and metropolitan areas.
We predict franchise companies will dedicate extensive resources to drive franchisee recruitment in 2025 and beyond. Franchise Partners are the heart of our business and having a solid pipeline of talent is a key ingredient to success.
Similarly, The Cheesecake Shop is poised for strategic growth in 2025 with existing bakery enhancements and more than 10 new bakeries opening across Australia and New Zealand in the 2025 Financial Year. With the growing demand we continue to see, our purposeful expansion will result in a nationwide hunt for entrepreneurial talent to join the dessert-loving team.
#5 Franchisee Empowerment
Managing a business can be tough but we know that franchise owners are resilient, hard-working and determined to succeed. It takes an entrepreneurial mindset, one that embraces challenges,
seeks growth, and stays focused on long-term success. This mindset, combined with the support of a well-established brand, empowers franchisees to thrive even in changing markets.
Franchise companies offer a vast support network, including head office teams, and it is beneficial for franchisees to tap into these networks for valuable insights or business expertise.
Moving into 2025, we will continue investing heavily in Franchise Partners and empower them to meet any challenges they face, as well as our shared responsibilities from bakery to head office. Having recently implemented a brand refresh, The Cheesecake Shop worked closely with Franchise Partners to roll out the elements in-store and digitally and incorporate their feedback to make it successful. While the brand refresh was external, we knew how important it was to review internal systems and ensure we communicated with our stores effectively and efficiently.
We predict (and hope) that companies continue to invest in their Franchise Partners, just as we will, because our business owners – alongside our dedicated bakers – are the backbone of our thriving business model.
Scott Bush was appointed CEO of The Cheesecake Shop in Australia in 2022, eager to reignite passion for the nostalgic brand as he and his team pursue ambitious expansion plans for the business across Australia and New Zealand.
The versatile and dynamic business leader joined The Cheesecake Shop after two decades with Domino’s, where he oversaw operations inside the brand, most recently as CEO of Domino’s in Ireland.
Scott brings his appetite for the franchise industry to his role as CEO, alongside an innate ability to build connections, innovate and lead franchise teams to success. With exceptional leadership skills and business acumen, Scott is focused on growing The Cheesecake Shop’s sales and improving company and franchisee profits.